Engage!
First thing's first: Sarah and I are engaged!
It seems that after all these years of living in sin, Sarah's finally going to make an honest woman out of me. I'm super happy.
But Sarah and I had a hard time properly expressing this happiness in written form. Observe:
1. Sarah and I are engaged.
While with a simple period, there is no one who doubts the fact that I'm now betrothed to my beloved, but there's also no doubt that I am a likely candidate for suicide watch. Not the right way to announce a new life. Pass.
2. Sarah and I are engaged!!!!!!!!!!! True, you get the sense that I'm very happy to be getting married, but you also get the sense that Sarah should be less happy, since she's going to tie the knot with an excitable pre-teen girl.
3. Sarah and I are engaged :)
Yes, there should be a smile, but honestly, just a closed parenthetical? That's the smile you give when someone gets a free doughnut at work, not when he announces one of the biggest decisions of his adult life. While gchatting with our friends, Sarah and I opted for the open-mouth emoticon, :D, which we felt fairly encapsulated the complex emotions of the event.
And let's talk about the proposal itself, since I know you're all dying to hear. After sending Sarah out of the house for an hour with a clever ruse ("I need you to leave the house. Now.") I hurried to set up a treasure hunt that would culminate in my proposing to her.
The general idea for a treasure hunt was my sister's excellent idea, and I filled in the rest. The plot went something like this:
On Sarah's desk is a free sticker of Obama. I put a post it note there saying that he (Obama), myself, and some others had all chipped in to get Sarah something special, but being so busy, he had misplaced it. A trail of clues led from Obama to the other characters/inside jokes that populate our house. A few of them were:
- The Wall Spirit Tapestry that we brought home from Japan.
- A corresponding Toilet Paper Spirit Tapestry, also from Japan.
- The spider that lives in the shower.
- Hobie the hobo who lives in our attic.
- A diamond made from 12 carrots, which was a snack for Hobie's hobo rabbit, Robo.
- Our plant, Gwynne Middleton, named for our fellow ETA, Gwynne Middleton.
- Our anthropomorphized collection of chili-based sauces.
Next to each one of these characters was a note saying what they liked about Sarah and where she might find the thing she was looking for. Not only was it adorable and romantic, we both got a solid workout running throughout the house. Since imaginary hobos, treasure hunts, and stair-based cardio are the foundation of any strong marriage, I think we're well on our way.
A lot of people have been asking me, "why now?" Well, it's really quite simple. While we were in Malaysia, everyone thought we were married. Then at the end, we had a wedding. The next logical step is that we get engaged. Pretty soon we'll start dating, then we get to meet, and the whole thing will start over.
The other big questions are about the wedding: "when?" followed by "where?" and to a lesser extent "who?" (if I'm talking to strangers on the street).
As for where, well, there's a point of contention. Sarah wants to have it on Earth, and I want to do it on the Moon, so we'll probably have to compromise and have it on the International Space Station. It's currently $30 million a person to get up there, but we're pretty sure we can get a group discount.
The date we have picked out is 2010. Probably in the summer, but more likely just all of it. It makes sense to have a day-long wedding if you've been together for a couple of years, but by the time 2010 rolls around, Sarah and I will have been a couple for 9 years. If that doesn't deserve a year of festivities, I don't know what does.
It seems that after all these years of living in sin, Sarah's finally going to make an honest woman out of me. I'm super happy.
But Sarah and I had a hard time properly expressing this happiness in written form. Observe:
1. Sarah and I are engaged.
While with a simple period, there is no one who doubts the fact that I'm now betrothed to my beloved, but there's also no doubt that I am a likely candidate for suicide watch. Not the right way to announce a new life. Pass.
2. Sarah and I are engaged!!!!!!!!!!! True, you get the sense that I'm very happy to be getting married, but you also get the sense that Sarah should be less happy, since she's going to tie the knot with an excitable pre-teen girl.
3. Sarah and I are engaged :)
Yes, there should be a smile, but honestly, just a closed parenthetical? That's the smile you give when someone gets a free doughnut at work, not when he announces one of the biggest decisions of his adult life. While gchatting with our friends, Sarah and I opted for the open-mouth emoticon, :D, which we felt fairly encapsulated the complex emotions of the event.
And let's talk about the proposal itself, since I know you're all dying to hear. After sending Sarah out of the house for an hour with a clever ruse ("I need you to leave the house. Now.") I hurried to set up a treasure hunt that would culminate in my proposing to her.
The general idea for a treasure hunt was my sister's excellent idea, and I filled in the rest. The plot went something like this:
On Sarah's desk is a free sticker of Obama. I put a post it note there saying that he (Obama), myself, and some others had all chipped in to get Sarah something special, but being so busy, he had misplaced it. A trail of clues led from Obama to the other characters/inside jokes that populate our house. A few of them were:
- The Wall Spirit Tapestry that we brought home from Japan.
- A corresponding Toilet Paper Spirit Tapestry, also from Japan.
- The spider that lives in the shower.
- Hobie the hobo who lives in our attic.
- A diamond made from 12 carrots, which was a snack for Hobie's hobo rabbit, Robo.
- Our plant, Gwynne Middleton, named for our fellow ETA, Gwynne Middleton.
- Our anthropomorphized collection of chili-based sauces.
Next to each one of these characters was a note saying what they liked about Sarah and where she might find the thing she was looking for. Not only was it adorable and romantic, we both got a solid workout running throughout the house. Since imaginary hobos, treasure hunts, and stair-based cardio are the foundation of any strong marriage, I think we're well on our way.
A lot of people have been asking me, "why now?" Well, it's really quite simple. While we were in Malaysia, everyone thought we were married. Then at the end, we had a wedding. The next logical step is that we get engaged. Pretty soon we'll start dating, then we get to meet, and the whole thing will start over.
The other big questions are about the wedding: "when?" followed by "where?" and to a lesser extent "who?" (if I'm talking to strangers on the street).
As for where, well, there's a point of contention. Sarah wants to have it on Earth, and I want to do it on the Moon, so we'll probably have to compromise and have it on the International Space Station. It's currently $30 million a person to get up there, but we're pretty sure we can get a group discount.
The date we have picked out is 2010. Probably in the summer, but more likely just all of it. It makes sense to have a day-long wedding if you've been together for a couple of years, but by the time 2010 rolls around, Sarah and I will have been a couple for 9 years. If that doesn't deserve a year of festivities, I don't know what does.
Comments
seriously, though, congratulations! that's fantastic.
:) ?
no, :D !!!
Love, your Aunt Shane
I need to get in touch with Len.
Also, our living room is available for the wedding if you want. It should still have plenty of free space by the summer.
Congratulations! You will be pleased to know that museum docents are using your fake Malaysian marriage to attempt to pick up American girls. "None of you are married? How terrible! A bunch of last year's ETAs were married, doesn't that make you want to get married too? To me?"
Also where did you get your guitar?